Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Julie Moon seems to gather inspiration from the concept of the perception of femininity for her marvelous work. Her amazing ceramic pieces look like abstract meditations upon the Venus of Willendorf, perhaps done by Jonathan Adler...

Kailiang Yang was born in China but lives and works in Germany which is clearly reflected in his work. He paints watery, soaked scenes of a hauntingly empty Eastern Europe that are at once immediate yet seemingly full of nostalgia, and delicately layered with memories.

“There’s a moment for everyone when you fall into your own shadow and the fact is that it’s your shadow and you’re forced to live in it. And this is nothing to celebrate or not celebrate. It simply is.”
--Robert Rauschenberg

“I have crossed over to a place where I never thought I’d be. I am someone I would have never imagined. A secret. A dream. I am this, body and soul. Burn me. Drown me. Tell me lies. I will still be who I am.”
--Alice Hoffman, Incantation

French artist Cecile Dachary works in many mediums including ceramic, but her fabric, crochet, and embroidery work is utterly fascinating because of its unconventional subject matter. She uses the human body as a springboard for studies of our internal organs and bacteria that can live in or on us. It is beautiful and startling work.

Top to bottom: hanging bacteria; bacteria in a jar; single bacteria; cushions embroidered with human internal organs; organs and vascular system under a cloche; organs in three cloches; Peau (Skin); le Potager des Organes (The Vegetable Garden of Organs)

Like treasures from a sunken ship that have been buried on the ocean floor, Mary O'Malley's exquisitely imaginative series "Bottom Feeders" features barnacles, shells, starfish, and tentacles growing over and covering tea cups, creamers, glasses and tea pots.

About Me

About "Oh, By The Way"

"Oh, By The Way" is my digital scrap book of things I like, things I would share with a close friend and say: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/ clothing or interior designer/ model/ singer/ actor/ gorgeous man… or, have you seen this video/ photo/ film... or heard (or do you remember) this song/ band... or, read this book/ poem/ inspiring quote... or, visited this place/ restaurant/ famous building... or, have you heard of this amazing new scientific discovery?”

I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. Sometimes I post cultural as well as personal observations, milestones, and remembrances. And just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.

Some of the photos, art, poetry, and prose are my own original work, credited with my initials, JEF. When it isn't, I always try to post links to the original source material, but often I find photos on the web that are not linked or other material that is not sourced. In these instances, I post them without malice since it is assumed that such things, by being globally posted on something as uncontrollable as the internet to begin with, are in the public domain. If you identify the source of an image that is not linked, please politely let me know (without accusing me of theft) and I will be happy to provide a link.

I hope to inspire and entertain my readers with things that inspire and entertain ME. There is a startling amount of beauty and creativity in the world and it enriches us all to participate in it.

All-time Favorite Films

2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)

After Hours (Hysterical, hair-raising ride through NYC at night)

Amelie

American Beauty (Alan Ball)

Baraka (Stunning, transcending—the "spiritus mundi" on film)

Belle et Bete (Cocteau)

Big Sleep, The (The epitome of film noir)

Bringing Up Baby (Hepburn & Grant—the epitome of screwball comedy)

Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The (Greenaway)

Crash (Cronenberg—DIFFICULT subject, not for everyone)

Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg—ultimate modern gothic horror)

Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway)

Easy Rider

Edward II (Derek Jarman)

Erendira (From magic realist Marquez’ brilliant short story)

Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film)

Fearless (Jeff Bridges—life and death)

Funny Bones (Leslie Caron, Jerry Lewis, and the brilliant Lee Evans)

Holiday (Hepburn & Grant)

Howard’s End (The ultimate statement of the unfairness of class systems)